Bahlil Accelerates Settlement Of Balikpapan RDMP To Stimulate Oil Production

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia asked Pertamina to immediately complete a project to increase the capacity of the Balikpapan Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP) refinery in July 2025, so as to spur oil production.

"I am targeting, the target of them is September. I ask to be accelerated, if possible July is better, June, June-July is better," Bahlil said as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, December 14.

Bahlil said that if the project was completed, it could increase the domestic oil production capacity to 100,000 barrels of oil per day (BOPD), which at this time the Balikpapan Refinery has a capacity of 260,000 BOPD.

So that this will help Indonesia to achieve self-sufficiency in energy as targeted by President Prabowo.

"Because the addition of this refinery will be able to produce oil production, so it will be 100.000 barrels per day. In addition, yes, it used to be 260,000, now it's just an additional 100.000 SO the total is 360,000 BOPD," he said.

Bahlil explained that the oil production facility included in the national strategic project (PSN) previously experienced a fire incident in May 2024, so this had an impact on delays in development.

However, the progress of large work (major) has returned to normal, with the construction percentage of RDMP facilities reaching 91 percent.

"God willing, the major item has been resolved. Earlier I saw that only minors and the progress of the work had reached 91 percent," he said.

Previously, Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Yuliot Tanjung highlighted the role of the downstream oil and gas sector in realizing energy self-sufficiency, in accordance with President Prabowo's Astacita.

His party noted that the energy mix in the first semester of 2024 was dominated by coal at 39.48 percent, while petroleum was 29.90 percent, natural gas was 16.69 percent, and around 13.93 percent came from new and renewable energy (EBT).

Meanwhile, on the projected energy mix in 2050, the portion of petroleum is around 20 percent, and natural gas is in the range of 24 percent.